I loved it and I hated it all at once. Not sure how exactly I feel about this book. I’m glad I read it as it opens up another perspective for me about how confusing it can be to try and fit into this world. I see the struggles and difficulties around me and it’s sad that we as a society have to face these things. Thank you for this book

Cecelia Rabess’s novel Everything’s Fine is an interracial love story between a black woman who is a liberal and a white man who supports Donald Trump. Let me preface this by saying that I’ve read quite a few romance novels that had unique stories. One in particular involved a Neo Nazi falling in love with a black woman. She shared his feelings later on in the story. I didn’t think much of it because that type of relationship rarely happens in real life. The thing about Everything’s Fine is that it’s more realistic. There are people who are married to partners who have different political beliefs. Some Black women are married to Republicans but they are lifelong Democrats. How does that work? Your guess is as good as mine.

There are a few things that I liked about this story. I liked the fact that both Jess and Josh met in college. They were friends before they started dating. Josh pined for her from afar and wasn’t pushy. I also, liked that there were layers to each character. Josh is nice, thoughtful and caring. Jess stands up for herself. The idea of having NYC as a setting was a plus for me. Also, I liked Jess’ dad and Barbara

As for the things that I did not like, Jess is not a likable character in my opinion at first. She’s impulsive, naïve and reacts before she thinks. There’s a scene , where Jess ghosts Josh. That annoyed me to no end. Yes, she was mad with him after the fight but at least hear him out. As for Josh, he convinced her to leave her job and work for him. Then she gets fired. His political beliefs are pretty much his personality. No, he’s not browbeating anyone with them per say but they are still problematic.

I rated this book 3 stars out of 5. Thank you to NetGalley for approving my request for this book. It was an easy read.

Pride and prejudice this is not. Jess doesn’t over come her prejudices or pride and those her biggest faults. She doesn’t take responsibility for her actions, she literally blames all her problems from racism to geography. She get fired and she blames it on being a black women and office politics, when she was told multiple times the company’s expectation of their employees community participation. Josh even warns her multiple times. The company gives her opportunities to volunteer within the office, she is told multiple time about this opportunity. She blames not participating because no one told her it was interacting with black kids.

Josh seemed to be the most dynamic character. His opinions change, or sees more of the nuances of the arguments. His view of Jess’s character depends and and he come to love her as a more rounded character and drops his prejudices against her. Jess sees Josh as one thing through the whole book. He does things that surprise her, that she sees would be out of character for him. Her prejudices towards him hold through the whole book, what changes? What makes her sudden love him as much as he loves her? She wonders if love will be enough and her question is never answered.

The book did hit on that we (as a country) are having two different conversations about the same topics. There is a lot of political tension, and I was fun. For Jess and Josh the resolve; strength where you’re strongest and the most vulnerable, and let others take their shots at what may look like your weaknesses.

On a personally note the names of Jess and Josh were too similar, starting with J and the third letter a S, I would get half way down a page and not know who was doing what 😂. The way I read I wasn’t comprehending the names and had a hard time connecting them to actions. I had to reread some pages, or slow down as I read.

Advertising this as a romance enemies to lovers is a cruel joke. That isn’t even close to what these horrid characters represent. The political undertone is too much and rather cringe worthy. We get it, she’s black and he’s white, there was so much more that could have been finessed into the story.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for this advanced reading copy. Jess and Josh follow the classic enemies to lovers trope and it is fun to watch their feelings and perspectives shift and evolve from college to being colleagues as analysts. What’s different about this story is that the enemy bit lies in political beliefs expressed in a college debate seminar. Josh is a privileged white man who was raised in Connecticut and Jess is a black woman raised by a single father in Lincoln, Nebraska. While Josh is firm in his beliefs and understanding of politics and their effects on the economy, Jess finds herself navigating very different waters. She never quite fit into the black community, as she was a very small minority growing up in Lincoln and had no black friends and no influence of a mother figure. Her understanding of the black experience in America is limited to her father’s lessons and observations. She feels like she must “say something” anytime she hears something or is privy to a belief that perpetuates stereotypes and stigmas. It was difficult for me to read the endless debates and squabbles leading up to and during the 2016 political landscape. I liked that this wasn’t a fluffy romance, but the level at which the economics, politics, analyst work, and social commentary was addressed was so advanced that it probably won’t be accessible to readers without experience in those areas.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Although I am a white woman, I am the adoptive mother of two Latino children - now young adults. Since they were toddlers, I have been involved in social justice work because I now see clearly how differently people of color are treated in our society. So Jess and Josh were real characters to me. I could very much identify with Jess and her views on these topics. I wanted to hate Josh because he is a Trumper and thinks everything in the world is about individual meritocracy. HAH!!!! I have lost several relationships and friends due to our diverse views on this topic. Yet, until I was 40 years old, I was Josh. I wondered if the couple's relationships could withstand their idealogical viewpoints. Read the book and find out. I loved this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for a copy to review. I"m unsure how to summarize my experience reading this. My overall emotions reading this was confusion as to why she continued to interact with him much less be romantically involved. This is advertised as enemies to lovers but much of their conflict surrounds his beliefs and actions related what's important to her. He is obviously hurtful and ignorant...I got the impression this was supposed to be a "can love be enough?" story. And the ending left me thinking "what??"

I liked the beginning. There were some funny parts but most of it didn't make sense and I didn't like the ending at all.

Tough book to rate, more like 2.5. I tried to find the good in it but I don't understand why Jess failed to dump Josh in the first chapters of the book. WHY? I did appreciate the viewpoint of Jess trying to break into a white, male dominated field but Josh just took it out of a good book for me. I also liked her interaction with her father - having to meet his ideal while trying to figure out what she wanted. Josh was horrible.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
I really enjoyed this story! Ms. Rabess builds very believable and relatable characters with strong dialogue and realistic character arcs. I would definitely look for future titles from this author!

This book was interesting, intriguing, and heartfelt. I loved it and everything that it stood for. I can’t wait to read the next book from the author.

A beautiful showcase of perspective. Still thinking of “Love conquers all, except geography, and history, and contemporary sociopolitical reality.” line and how I INSTANTLY highlighted it.

This was an intelligent and thought provoking take on an “enemies to friends” romance with layers of race/ gender/ socioeconomic inequality discussions consistently woven through the narrative.

In reading the goodreads reviews already submitted for this ARC, it seems like people proactively canceled this book either without reading or finishing it.

I thought there was a lot of nuance and humanity/ difficult decisions and discussions throughout the book and really enjoyed it.

Review in progress and to come.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review

This book is not what I thought it would be based on the description. I thought it would be more of a light-hearted romance and it wasn’t. It went a lot deeper, speaking of racism, sexism and different political ideologies. I have a lot of confusion on how to feel about this book and the deeper meanings within it.

Finished ✔️ Everything’s Fine by Cecilia Rabess
2.5 ⭐️’s
Publish Day: June 6th, 2023
Kindle Unlimited: No
Extraordinarily brave
Plain funny as hell
But I just felt like there was a lot missing
Yes, I’d recommended as this may be something someone else may like
#DeesReading #DeesRecs #DeesBookRecommendations #BookNerds #BookNerdProblems #BookNerdsUnited #BookProblems #BookProblems101 #BookNerds101 #Bookworms #BookwormProblems #BooksOfFacebook #DeeTheBookReviewer #DeesReadOfTheDay #DeesBookOfTheDay #DeesBookReviewsOfTheDay #BookReviewer #NewToMeAuthor #ReadOfTheDay #BookOfTheDay #CeciliaRabess #EverythingsFine #NetGalley

Why did you not market this as women’s lit?
Or even, could you imagine, if it had been marketed as a psychological thriller? I think this could have served the theme of the story so much better.
The writing style lends well to a thriller. Josh lends well to a thriller. He is just the right amount of toxic and cringy. Their toxic “relationship” lends well to a thriller. The political happenings lends well to a thriller.
Instead, you played with fire by upsetting die-hard fans of the romance genre by breaking the cardinal rule of romance:
There has to be a happily ever after (HEA) at the end. Or at the very least a happily for now (HFN). This book is NOT a HEA. The tenuous HFN is tossed right out the window at the end of this book. This is not a romance. It’s hardly even a love story! I really didn’t feel much chemistry between these two or that they even liked each other all that much! For most of the book they weren’t even getting along.
I believe the reviews on Goodreads make it clear marketing this as a romance was a mistake.
(Do not let the freaky anomaly of what Colleen Hoover did with “It Ends With Us” make you think you can get away with calling a book about a toxic relationship without a HEA/HFN a romance, when it is not.)

The publisher has done this book a disservice by marketing the book this way.

This is a decently well written story. This is a unique narrative. The writing style is different but again, the mechanical listing of occurring facts could be great for a thriller. This could be powerful. Make the reader uncomfortable by showing everyone a toxic relationship mixed with the realistic struggles of a Black woman in today’s world. Label it a thriller and make people see it as dark and twisted the way it should be seen! I mean, the ending would set you up to really sit and think about this story. And that would be powerful. But instead you will just anger most of your audience, and not in a righteous way.

As a romance, I rate this 1 star. As literally anything else: 3 stars.
I will not be posting a review on goodreads…I think the damage is done. Re-shelve this book and try again.

I wasn’t able to finish this one because of the content matter. Racism shouldn’t be a an ordeal you tackle in order to fall in love.

Her boyfriend was just racist, and she acted like it was will-they-or-won't-they star crossed lovers.

This was not the book for me. That's not to say that there weren't good parts that I did enjoy, it was just a lot.

I feel like there were three parts to this book: the experience of working in trade/finance; the romance; and the politics.

The work that the characters did at Goldman Sachs, and then later at a more independent firm, was over my head. It wasn't something I was interested in, though I did feel the struggle Jess dealt with to be taken seriously. Not only was she a woman, but a black woman, and the way she was treated was downright disgusting at times. From treating her as a secretary, not an analyst, not giving her work, or giving her work with no direction as to how to do it. Then, when she was able to take part with the "team", not getting credit for her work.
To an extent, Josh did help her and stand up for her. Not nearly enough though, and I found myself disappointed in all the times and ways he didn't say something, or step up. I was hoping for a "Hating Game" situation, and that wasn't what we got at all

The romance. When it was just them, I did like Josh and Jess together. They had cute moments, some of their banter was fun and funny. They truly do love each other, though there were so many times I wanted to be there clapping and shouting "COMMUNICATION!" There were so many times one or the other held back, not explaining the small things that were coming between them or upsetting them. Then small things turned to big things.
When they were apart, you could feel the way they missed each other. Jess shutting out Josh broke me a little, especially when he tried to be there for her. The way he didn't give up, even when she shut down and shut him out. It's hard enough to figure out what you want in life, let alone the added pressure of your parent dying. Jess found herself asking the question: was being in love and loved worth more than being right?

The politics. This was where the book really lost me. Their different stances, and the arguments it brought on reminded me of the movie "The Way We Once Were". If this is a movie you loved, then this book would be right up your alley! For me, it made me question why they were even trying. If they were so different, if they couldn't agree about their fundamental beliefs. If they couldn't see eye to eye; and didn't even seem to want to try.

I've seen a lot of bad reviews, and I think this book deserves more benefit of the doubt. It may not be for everyone, like it wasn't for me, but it deserves to be given a chance instead of judged before even being read.